


let the wind carry me to you

by huhyouexist



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Azula hurts sometimes it's important to remember that, Cuddling, F/F, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Hurt/Comfort, Just hints of it, Soft Azula, short but sweet, sort of plot but not really, they can still bed tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:41:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27187411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huhyouexist/pseuds/huhyouexist
Summary: literally just a quick fic i did because twitter gave me ideasam i procrastinating my book? maybe. will apologize for it? no, not really lmaojust enjoy this don't think too hard about it, comment what you thought.see ya :)
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 87





	let the wind carry me to you

Azula could hear the harsh howl of the wind blowing outside, even with the thick shield of glass separating her from the world out yonder. It was dark, almost too dark to see but Azula didn’t care. All she focused on was not dropping the mug in her hand as she took delicate sips here and there.

Apart from the occasional gust of wind, it was a relatively quiet night. Or, morning, she supposes as she glances at the time to see it was 1 in the morning. 

It was another one of those nights for Azula. Nothing was necessarily wrong, but Azula sometimes would experience days where her mind wandered to things better left forgotten. It caused her to fall in a sort of daze, where she was left neither hungry nor tired. Unable to sleep, kept awake by the thoughts of old scars and broken hearts

It was almost as if she was numb. She felt nothing but vague pain as she recalled memories of a girl who looked like her, yet seemed so different to the one she knew now. It burned a question into her mind that haunted her no matter what.

Did she deserve the chance that others had given her?

Probably not, but here she was anyway.

Sanity was a fickle thing with her. She always feared that one day someone would say the wrong thing or she would fall back into old habits and snap like she once did. Doing that would mean losing everything she had worked so hard to earn. The friends she had made, the relationships she had mended;

The love she had been so graciously given.

Azula takes a sip from her mug, finding the tea inside to have grown cold. Letting it rest in her pals, she heats it up with her bending, knowing just when to stop so that it is hot enough to enjoy, but not scalding to her tongue. She had always been good at that, doing everything perfectly.

It was one of the reasons she became what she was, wasn’t it?

_ Perfectionist, monster, cruel, unloving- _

“Princess?”

Azula’s heart skips a beat, and the grip she had on her mug tightens. She says nothing, allowing herself to listen to Ty Lee’s socks pad their way over to where Azula stood. Even when the brunette wraps her arms around her waist from behind and rests her forehead on Azula’s shoulder, she makes no attempt to speak. She’s not sure of what to say if she did.

“What is it?”

Everything and nothing. The permanency of the past, and yet no certainty of the future. What lied for Azula as she walked this path, and would Ty Lee still be there when she reached the end of the road?

Azula didn’t know, and that’s what scared her most.

“Talk to me.” Ty Lee whispers softly, kissing the base of Azula’s neck with a tenderness she was not yet accustomed to. Azula sighs, head falling to look at the dark liquid of her tea. One would think she was drinking ink if they didn’t know better. 

“I don’t know.” Is what Azula gives as an answer. “Everything, I suppose.”

“Another one of those nights?” Ty Lee asks, and Azula hums as confirmation, sipping her tea once more. It was lukewarm now, but not undrinkable. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“What’s left to talk about?” 

“Whatever you want, princess.”

Azula sucks in a breath. She focuses on what her thoughts seemed to be most centered around, and blurts out whatever is there.

“Is this real?” Ty Lee seems to freeze at the words, and Azula allows herself to just talk to fill the silence between them. “I’ve done so many things that you shouldn’t have forgiven me for, and yet here I am with you. I guess I’m just wondering if this is as real as it seems to be, or if it’s just another one of my mind’s illusions to torment me.”

“Azula-” Ty Lee tries, breaking out of the hug when Azula’s voice cracks. Azula can see her figure move to stand in front of her now, and she doesn’t realize she’s crying until the tears are spilling into her tea, splashing lightly at the contact. 

She continues even as the mug is taken from her hands and set onto a nearby counter. “I don’t get it, I’ve never gotten it. How, after all this time, after everything that I’ve done, could you still love me? This can’t possibly be real.” She cries.

Ty Lee wraps her arms around Azula’s neck, pulling her in for a hug that should be helping Azula but is only worsening the outcome. Not the hug itself per se, but rather the notion that this could all just be part of some elaborate dream of hallucination Azula had given herself.

“I’m here, Azula. I’m real, I promise.”

Azula wants to say more, but the words die on her lips as she lets out a choked sob. Her arms seem to gain function again as they move to wrap around Ty Lee’s waist tightly, bringing the girl ever closer and giving her a sign that this is real. That she is real.

“You’ve done horrible things, yes, and you’ve hurt a lot of people. Some may never forgive you for that.” Ty Lee starts. “But that doesn’t mean you stop trying to be better. I forgave you because I  _ know you _ Azula. I know you're broken, and I know you're scarred, but I also know you're  _ trying _ . You're  _ trying  _ because you want to be better than that person you once were. You see that you were wrong and are trying to right those wrongs.”

Azula sniffles, silently noting that her tears had stopped and was now only burying her face into Ty Lee’s shoulder for the safety and warmth it always gave her. 

“You say youre unworthy of love, but I disagree. You deserve love too, Azula. Be it from me, Zuko, your mother, or even the students at school. No one deserves living their life alone and unloved.”

“A fitting life for one called a monster.” Azula mumbles, thoughts dwelling to her Mother’s words that were spoken when she was only a child.

This makes Ty Lee shift, moving her hands to cup either side of Azula’s cheek and lift her head up carefully. “You are  _ not _ a monster, Azula.”

“Then what am I? Because I’m not sure I know anymore.” Azula asks, all but falling into Ty Lee’s touch helplessly. She was too tired to care anymore. Ty Lee was warm, and safe, and everything Azula needed right now. 

“You are my girlfriend, and I love you.”

Girlfriend.

Ty Lee’s girlfriend.

The words ring in her ears like clarity personified, and Azula has an epiphany. 

Maybe she was a monster, and maybe she was a perfectionist. She very well was all those things once upon a time, and might always be them deep down. But here, right now in this very moment, Azula realized that none of that mattered. What mattered was that Ty Lee was her girlfriend, and she loved her more than any name the world could throw and plaster on her forehead. 

Ty Lee was everything to her, and she would be damned before she let a few ill-conceived names put a wrench in the love they shared. 

Taking Ty Lee’s hands and removing them from her cheek, she brings them together to kiss them softly. “You’re right.” Azula finally says. “You’re always right.”

Ty Lee hums, a smile edging on her lips. “Not always, but I try my best.”

“And you do wonderfully, darling.”

“Sweet talker.” Ty Lee replies, before yawning tiredly. “Alright, as much as I love these talks, I am super tired so can we please go back to bed?”

Azula chuckles, and is now beginning to feel her own tiredness as her eyes droop slightly. “Of course.”

With that, Azula is dragged back to bed, Ty Lee ignoring her remark that they need to go clean the tea out of her mug and instead saying that they could do it in the morning. Azula lets it slide, mostly because Ty Lee seemed too adamant about this for one in the morning. 

They crawl into bed, Ty Lee immediately finding Azula and wrapping herself around the fire bender like a snake. Azula smiles at the action, and lets her arm work it’s way under Ty Lee’s body comfortably so that it rests on the base of the acrobat’s back. She would no doubt be numb in that arm in the morning, but Azula couldn’t bring herself to care.

Ty Lee was here, and she was real. That numbness would only serve as proof to that claim.

Closing her eyes, she feels the edges of sleep pulling her in like a moth to a flame, and this time, she had no quarrels going to the light. No longer filled with conflicting feelings or thoughts of the past, Azula only thought of the future she had with Ty Lee. One so bright and vibrant that it would have once made her sick to her stomach at the thought.

Now, as Ty Lee gives Azula a peck to her forehead, signaling the brunette’s final goodnight, she smiles.

Ty Lee’s girlfriend.

That had a nice ring to it.

**Author's Note:**

> literally just a quick fic i did because twitter gave me ideas
> 
> am i procrastinating my book? maybe. will apologize for it? no, not really lmao
> 
> just enjoy this don't think too hard about it, comment what you thought.
> 
> see ya :)


End file.
